The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1887-01-20
ADIAMoNn STORY.
The Clever work Now Accomplished by
Dishonest Lapidaries.

A well known diamond dealer. who
has become an expert from many years
handling of precious stones, was near
" taken in few days ago by shrewd
diamond shark. whose new scheme de-
serves attention. as it is likely to be at
tempted in some other quarter. The
dodge consists in trying to palm of
cleverly '-doctored' diamond as q very
valuable stone and In telling plausible
and picturesque story TO give 1t coun-
tenance.
The short, stout man. with grizzled.
gray mustache. who tried to Victimize
the jeweler in question, brought to him
an elegant-looking solitaire ring. pur-
porting to contain diamond OF unusual
size and brilliancy. To the eye even
of the expert the stone looked all right
and the man tried hard 10 make bar
gain with him at once. without pro-
ceeding any further. AS it looked. the
diamond was easily worth E2Oo. and
the man, who told a tale of dire neces-
sity, offered to sell it for &100.
The story of the diamond IS told by
the man. who gave the name of Charles
HARDWOOD. was that it belonged origin
ally to the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia
In December 1871, when the Grand
Duke. who was young and handsome.
| attended the reception given in his
honor in the Academy of Music, an
episode occurred that attracted consid-
cradle attention at the time and has
been much talked of since.
Some time after the promenade, and
| when everything was in motion. the at
tention of the Duke, who had gone up
stairs with two of the gentleman of the
committee. was attracted by lady in
0ue of the corner rows of curtained
| balcony boxes. There were but two
ladies in the box, one Of them an elder
| ly lady and the other tail, beautiful
young woman. about 20 years Of age.
| who had remarkably fine eyes, which
could not fail to be noticed.
The Grand Duke expressed desire to
be introduced, which was soon gratiEed,
and after standing for a few moments
in front of the box he asked permission
to go inside. In little while he asked
the lady to 90 on the promenade, and
ing her, but she mildly and persistently
refused.
As he rose to 60, the Duke, holding
her hand moment and slipping from
one of his fingers a diamond ring. pre-
sented it to her and asked her to keep
it as souvenir of the occasion. The
lady did SO. and kept it for severa
years, until at last she fell into reduced
circumstances and determined to ge
rid of the ring in spite of its associa
tons
Such, in substance, are the facts of ar
occurrence upon which the man with
the diamond to sell told his story. HI
represented that the diamond he haC
was the one given to tins lady. and ht
endeavored very clearly to trace its his
tory to her. The jeweler, however. in
sisted upon removing the stone from tn
setting TO examine it, and this the maj
allowed him to do.
The mans willingness to do this very
nearly threw the jeweler off his guarI
at the last moment especially as upoI
removing the stone he could see nothin!
wrong with it. Taking up microscope
however. he was able to detect, with
close scrutiny. a slight variation in thu
quality and texture of the stone between
the middle portions and the ends.
Then he held the stone near a lamp
and in a few minutes the whole natur
of the ingenious fraud dawned upol
him. A small real diamond of inferio
quality formed the top and bottom, AM
a fine piece of crystal had been sand
wiched between them, adding nearl
ten times to the value of the stone.
had been so cleverly and ingeniousl.
put together with a colorless cemen
that it was almost beyond the power O
detection. The man, of course, express
ed surprise. and asserted that the dia
mond was just as he received it'd